5 ms·

I assume the thinking is as follows: street names mattered on early paper maps, and printouts of online maps, because people would navigate through areas by com

I assume the thinking is as follows: street names mattered on early paper maps, and printouts of online maps, because people would navigate through areas by comparing the street name on the map to the street signs around them. That generation is now aging. Whole new generations have been brought up who instead navigate by searching for a POI or address, and then simply following the line or the voice guidance that the map app creates to lead them to that destination. The latter users may not know or care about the names of all the streets along the way. Sure, some people want to look at a map with street names just to become familiar with the whole town. But those users are probably too few for a company focused on profit to care about, and such independent-minded users might be harder to monetize anyway.

hardwaregeek 3y ago
The problem with that reasoning is that GPS/compasses in phones are often wrong, so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north, so you need to turn left to start heading west on Broadway. This is especially true if you're in a dense area where GPS gets especially confused, or if you're trying to catch an Uber (since now there's two potentially faulty GPS's in play). I often have to zoom in obnoxiously far to read the damn street names. It's quite frustrating and could easily be solved with some sort of tap to display name feature.
- rezonant 3y ago
  I don't particularly like the elision of street names myself, but is GPS on modern phones really often wrong? Perhaps it's more an issue in rural areas or super tightly packed areas like SF or New York? In LA, GPS is kind of crazily accurate, and other than routing choices that can seem strange, it seems to work perfectly. Compasses on phones are definitely a crapshoot though.
  - astrange 3y ago
    GPS has issues near skyscrapers ("urban canyons") because the signals reflect off buildings and don't arrive at the proper times. You can correct for this with multiple frequencies or if you have an accurate map of nearby building heights.
  - snailmailman 3y ago
    The only place I’ve had severe gps issues was when visiting NYC. Too many tall buildings. Very little line of sight to a satellite. Plus reflections from buildings. It was frequently off by entire blocks. Found ourselves frequently ignoring the blue dot on the map. I do encounter compass issues all of the time though. Almost always it starts perpendicular to where it should.
- OmarShehata 3y ago
  > so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north Most of the people I've questioned on this struggle to figure out where the north west corner is or what direction north is etc. And yet they can still navigate in dense urban environments perfectly fine. How? Landmark based navigation. All you need to do know is [some big landmark, like central park, or the sea] is behind you. Now to get to your destination, you want store X on your right and move forward. Turn right at store Y, etc. This is the reality of how a lot of people navigate and I think the new map reflects this.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    > Landmark based navigation. All you need to do know is [some big landmark, like central park, or the sea] is behind you. Now to get to your destination, you want store X on your right and move forward. Yes, but one very important and ubiquitous landmark in urban environment is an intersection. Two roads intersecting create an unique point that's easy to find (follow one of the roads until an intersection, then verify by checking street name plates). It's exactly for this reason you'd want a map to always show you street names. Google Maps doesn't. It also doesn't reliably show most other landmarks you'd care about, like stores or monuments. Google Maps just plain sucks at being a map.
miriam_catira 3y ago
Couldn't we have a toggle option somewhere? Just a checkbox for "show all street names"... it can not possibly be that difficult. My spouse can testify, I get furious when I can't see the street names. :)
- resolutebat 3y ago
  It is, in fact, extraordinarily difficult to format street names well, especially at ever-changing zoom levels. What would it look like if you look at the whole city with "all street names" enabled? If you can't actually show them all, how do you decide what streets to drop? What if there's a small but important street, or a street with a long name that doesn't fit? The edge cases are numerous.
  - rezonant 3y ago
    Agreed, we don't need "show all level of details" when that's not tenable. I'd just prefer Google Maps to be a bit more "dense" when deciding what zoom level to show details at. This is particularly a problem with maps locations-- it's far too easy to get the incorrect impression that a building you are looking at is entirely a Denny's when in reality it's a strip mall with 5 businesses if you zoom in a little closer...
  - CogitoCogito 3y ago
    Every OSM-based mapping programming I’ve used handles it basically fine. Considering the amount of resources Google has, I find your claim pretty ridiculous. Google is actively choosing to hide street names and actively choosing not to provide an option to override that. This is quite clearly a business decision of some kind. They could certainly do this if they chose to.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Let's start with the simple rule: if a street name is big enough / important enough that Google Maps would consider showing it, it should show it. Always.
tdeck 3y ago
Unless you're pulling up to meet someone and need to tell them where you are, or calling 911 and need to tell them where you are. In those situations I want a street name fast and these issues can be quite frustrating.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
Or in short: Google Maps isn't a map, it's a turn-by-turn nav that pretends to be a map. A good digital map is a stellar tool for orientation and discovery. Google Maps isn't, because orientation and discovery goes against pushing you recommendations (read: ads). They don't want you to have spatial awareness - they want you to blindly follow paths that make them money.
yencabulator 3y ago
Especially in more rural areas, you're often given directions where to go based on things that aren't addresses that Google Maps would understand. Being able to open a good map and ask questions like "is that the one after Midler Avenue?" helps you drop a pin on the map, and then use the new-school navigation.

hardwaregeek 3y ago

The problem with that reasoning is that GPS/compasses in phones are often wrong, so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north, so you need to turn left to start heading west on Broadway. This is especially true if you're in a dense area where GPS gets especially confused, or if you're trying to catch an Uber (since now there's two potentially faulty GPS's in play). I often have to zoom in obnoxiously far to read the damn street names. It's quite frustrating and could easily be solved with some sort of tap to display name feature.

rezonant 3y ago
I don't particularly like the elision of street names myself, but is GPS on modern phones really often wrong? Perhaps it's more an issue in rural areas or super tightly packed areas like SF or New York? In LA, GPS is kind of crazily accurate, and other than routing choices that can seem strange, it seems to work perfectly. Compasses on phones are definitely a crapshoot though.
- astrange 3y ago
  GPS has issues near skyscrapers ("urban canyons") because the signals reflect off buildings and don't arrive at the proper times. You can correct for this with multiple frequencies or if you have an accurate map of nearby building heights.
- snailmailman 3y ago
  The only place I’ve had severe gps issues was when visiting NYC. Too many tall buildings. Very little line of sight to a satellite. Plus reflections from buildings. It was frequently off by entire blocks. Found ourselves frequently ignoring the blue dot on the map. I do encounter compass issues all of the time though. Almost always it starts perpendicular to where it should.
OmarShehata 3y ago
> so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north Most of the people I've questioned on this struggle to figure out where the north west corner is or what direction north is etc. And yet they can still navigate in dense urban environments perfectly fine. How? Landmark based navigation. All you need to do know is [some big landmark, like central park, or the sea] is behind you. Now to get to your destination, you want store X on your right and move forward. Turn right at store Y, etc. This is the reality of how a lot of people navigate and I think the new map reflects this.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > Landmark based navigation. All you need to do know is [some big landmark, like central park, or the sea] is behind you. Now to get to your destination, you want store X on your right and move forward. Yes, but one very important and ubiquitous landmark in urban environment is an intersection. Two roads intersecting create an unique point that's easy to find (follow one of the roads until an intersection, then verify by checking street name plates). It's exactly for this reason you'd want a map to always show you street names. Google Maps doesn't. It also doesn't reliably show most other landmarks you'd care about, like stores or monuments. Google Maps just plain sucks at being a map.

miriam_catira 3y ago

Couldn't we have a toggle option somewhere? Just a checkbox for "show all street names"... it can not possibly be that difficult. My spouse can testify, I get furious when I can't see the street names. :)

resolutebat 3y ago
It is, in fact, extraordinarily difficult to format street names well, especially at ever-changing zoom levels. What would it look like if you look at the whole city with "all street names" enabled? If you can't actually show them all, how do you decide what streets to drop? What if there's a small but important street, or a street with a long name that doesn't fit? The edge cases are numerous.
- rezonant 3y ago
  Agreed, we don't need "show all level of details" when that's not tenable. I'd just prefer Google Maps to be a bit more "dense" when deciding what zoom level to show details at. This is particularly a problem with maps locations-- it's far too easy to get the incorrect impression that a building you are looking at is entirely a Denny's when in reality it's a strip mall with 5 businesses if you zoom in a little closer...
- CogitoCogito 3y ago
  Every OSM-based mapping programming I’ve used handles it basically fine. Considering the amount of resources Google has, I find your claim pretty ridiculous. Google is actively choosing to hide street names and actively choosing not to provide an option to override that. This is quite clearly a business decision of some kind. They could certainly do this if they chose to.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  Let's start with the simple rule: if a street name is big enough / important enough that Google Maps would consider showing it, it should show it. Always.

tdeck 3y ago

Unless you're pulling up to meet someone and need to tell them where you are, or calling 911 and need to tell them where you are. In those situations I want a street name fast and these issues can be quite frustrating.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Or in short: Google Maps isn't a map, it's a turn-by-turn nav that pretends to be a map. A good digital map is a stellar tool for orientation and discovery. Google Maps isn't, because orientation and discovery goes against pushing you recommendations (read: ads). They don't want you to have spatial awareness - they want you to blindly follow paths that make them money.

yencabulator 3y ago

Especially in more rural areas, you're often given directions where to go based on things that aren't addresses that Google Maps would understand. Being able to open a good map and ask questions like "is that the one after Midler Avenue?" helps you drop a pin on the map, and then use the new-school navigation.